Royal Mail announces annual stamp price rises for April 2011

Royal Mail announces annual stamp price rises for April 2011

Royal Mail has announced its annual stamp price rises which will take effect from 4 April 2011. Following these increases, UK stamp prices for standard letters weighing up to 100g will continue to be amongst the lowest in Europe.

The announcement follows Postcomm’s decisions, published on 8 November, when the regulator said Royal Mail could increase the price of stamped mail services by 10% on average and individual stamped mail services by up to 13%. The overall increase to stamped mail prices will add around 7p to the average UK household’s weekly spend of around 60p on postage.

The main price increases are:

The price of First and Second class stamps for standard items weighing up to 100g will rise by 5p to 46p and 4p to 36p respectively.

The cost of a Large Letter stamp will rise by 9p to 75p for First Class items and 7p to 58p for Second Class mail.

An increase in prices for franked mail by 3p to 39p for standard First Class items and by 3p to 28p for Second Class Mail. This is the first increase for two years on franked mail following a price freeze last year.

Moya Greene, Royal Mail’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We have thought carefully about these increases as we are conscious of the difficult economic circumstances our customers are facing. No-one likes to pay more and we regret having had to take these tough decisions on pricing. After these increases, we will continue providing value-for-money as our prices will still be among the lowest in Europe.

“We are investing heavily to modernise our operations, which is all about providing our customers with the services they need in today’s open, highly competitive postal marketplace. With the sharp declines in mail volume, our revenues are falling. That means if we don’t generate more income, we will simply not be able to keep funding our six-days-a-week collection, sorting, transport and delivery operation to the UK’s 28 million homes and businesses.”